By Joy McMasters
Daily Bruin Staff
While thousands battle the worst wildfires in years, California
public colleges prepare to accommodate student firefighters who may
not be able to return to school until late in the fall term ““
if at all.
Citing the student firefighters’ valuable service, on Aug.
23 Governor Gray Davis sent a letter to the heads of the University
of California, California State University, and California
Community Colleges requesting that the institutions extend
enrollment, registration, financial aid, and other such deadlines
until Sept. 30.
“Some of these young men and women have plans to enter
college this fall and they should not be asked to abandon their
positions on the fire lines at this critical time in order to
register for and enroll in classes,” Davis said in the
letter. “Many of these students are experienced firefighters
whose services are critical to fire fighting efforts in California
and other western states.”
In addition to deadline extensions for the fall term, Davis
requested that students be allowed to defer enrollment for up to a
year without penalty and receive a refund of fees already paid if
they are unable to return this term.
“It just seemed reasonable to ask the leaders to allow
these students to delay their registration so they don’t have
to worry about rushing back,” said Roger Salazar, a spokesman
for the governor.
According to spokespersons for each of the statewide school
systems, the schools plan to assist the students at the
governor’s request.
UC President Richard Atkinson prepared a letter forwarding the
governor’s request, said UC spokesman Chuck McFadden.
“I believe we certainly will go along with the
governor’s request,” McFadden said, “This is a
very special circumstance because this is the worst fire season in
the West in 50 years.”
It is not known how big a job it might be to help firefighters
as they return to school, but the job is worth doing, McFadden
said.
“It seems to me that we’re not talking about
inconvenience, were talking about convenience for students,”
McFadden said.
Agencies keep records on individual firefighters, but they do
not know how many might be helped by the governor’s request,
said National Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman E. Lynn
Burkett.
Many students and teachers decide to fight fires during their
summer break and some of the students decide to take the fall term
off to continue their work, she added.
Firefighting crews rotate and members come from a number of
agencies around the world. Though the students’ places could
be filled it would take time for their crews to work together well,
Burkett said.
“We are using everybody we’ve got right now. The
firefighters that are from college are a very valuable resource so
they would be a loss, but were prepared to compensate for
that,” Burkett said.
Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum favors doing as much as is possible
to help student firefighters said California Community Colleges
spokesperson Linda Michalowski.
“In the spirit of supporting our students currently
engaged in a courageous and noble endeavor, I would like to
strongly encourage you to embrace the governor’s request on
behalf of our student firefighters,” Nussbaum said in a
letter to Community College administrators.
“We’re hopeful that our colleges will be able to pay
special attention to their situations,” the letter said.
If campuses are crowded, community colleges may not be able to
help students as much as they might like to, Michalowski said.
At community colleges, unlike the CSU or UC systems, the problem
is that classes fill up since it’s not as much of a problem
getting into the colleges as it is enrolling in classes.
As a result, though deadlines may be extended, the classes may
fill up anyway.
“Deadlines are not an issue for us in the way that they
are for UC and CSU,” Michalowski said, “It may take
some extraordinary measures to make sure that the classes are still
available.”
WESTERN STATES ENGULFED BY WILDFIRES California
college students are among those fighting fires that burned nearly
6 million acres nationwide as of August 25. SOURCE: National
Interagency Fire Center Original graphic by YU WANG/Daily Bruin
Senior Staff Web adaptation by CHRISTINE TAN